AndoverMagazineFrontWinter2013

and leadership during his renowned association with
the Academy, the most recent being 17 years as a charter
trustee. He retired as president of the Board of Trustees last
June and continued to lead The Campaign for Andover,
Building on the Surest Foundation, which concluded at
the end of 2012 having raised a record $320 million. Often
described as Andover’s modern-day Thomas Cochran,
Tang personally has committed more than $40 million
to the school. His gifts include support for the Addison
Gallery, Brown Boathouse, and Tang Theatre, as well as
grants for faculty development.
His generosity began in earnest following the death of his
first wife, Frances Young Tang ’57, whom he met while she
was a student at Abbot and he at Andover. The renovation
of Draper Hall and Abbot Circle in 1996 symbolized a
renaissance for an all-but-abandoned Abbot campus and
rekindled Tang’s emotional ties to the school.
Those ties continue to grow stronger with each new class
of Tang Scholarship recipients, whose hometowns span
urban and rural America and dozens of international
locations. Student eligibility is intentionally broad, says
Tang, embracing the school’s commitment to “youth from
every quarter” and need-blind admission, a policy voted by
the Board of Trustees in 2007. “It is really important to me
that we look at access from the widest perspective,” he says.
“We look for promising students who see the world as an
opportunity, kids who will stretch themselves and pursue
an interest with gusto.”
30 Andover | Winter 2013
Esther Muradov ’11
Perhaps he sees a bit of himself in this description.
As told in the documentary film by Charles Stuart ’61,
Tang’s opportunity began when he first set foot on U.S. soil
at age 11. A Chinese immigrant fleeing the Communist
takeover of Shanghai, Tang knew no English and struggled
through his middle school years in St. Johnsbury, Vt. He
then attended The Rectory School in Pomfret, Conn.,
and found a mentor in Headmaster John Bigelow, who
encouraged him to apply to Andover.
“I knew that China was gone. So a realization that there
is nothing to go back to made the need to prepare myself
all the more important,” says Tang. “There is nothing like
hunger, if you will, to motivate somebody. Through this
whole experience, in a sense, I developed hunger.”
A similar determination caused Tang Scholar Henry
Yin ’07 to negotiate his way past security into an Andover
admission event at the American Embassy in Beijing. Yin
knew that Andover held the promise of opportunity. How
he would pay for this opportunity, he had no idea.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Harvard, Yin
contacted his Andover benefactor for career advice. They
met for breakfast in Boston and talked about the role he
could play if he returned to China. “ ‘Create something
that can make a difference.’ I still remember Mr. Tang’s
words,” says Yin. “I often think about how I might return
the generosity that so many at Andover provided for me—
the resources, the care. Right now, the best way is to bring
some of what I learned at Andover back to China.”
Yin says China’s positive aspects include its people’s strong
work ethic and the country’s unmet economic potential.
The Chinese are remarkably hopeful, he adds, but there
Photos by Michael Malyszko and Michael Lutch
Henry Yin ’07